Parents blame book for son's suspension

A Channelview ISD parent wants a popular children's book removed from library shelves at schools. She says her son used some of the language in the book and he got suspended for it.

Tammy Harris has a six-year-old son, and last year, she got a call from his teacher.

"He and a little girl wasn't getting a long and he called her a poo-poo head," Harris said.

The punishment was a one day suspension at Brown Elementary in Channelview. Harris had no problem with that. But that was before The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, which her son was reading aloud in the car, had been checked out from the school library.

"The only thing I heard from the back seat was 'hee-hee-hee. Poo-poo head is going to take poop and put it all over these people's heads,'" Harris said.

It is a graphic novel, or in this case, a cartoon book for kids. And in keeping with the diaper theme, it features bathroom humor.

Considering her son was suspended for the same kind of language, Harris has a problem with the book being in the elementary school library.

"I said, 'Do you remember when you got in trouble last year and you got suspended for calling that little girl a poo-poo head and now they allowed you to read something like that, do you think that's right?' And he's like, 'No,'" Harris said.

Harris is asking that the book be pulled from the Brown Elementary School library. In response, she got this statement from Channelview ISD:

"The review process will involve the appointment of a committee to determine the appropriateness of the material in question. School district policy also states that access to the challenged material shall not be restricted during the reconsideration process."

In other words, Super Diaper Baby can still fly off the library shelf and the boy's parents, who are protesting it, concede their complaints may only make the book more popular at the school.

"Every kid knows about that book and every kid in that school wants to check that book out," said the boy's dad, Randy Harris.